Nika Shakarami died from repeated blows of the baton to her head
Nika Shakarami was born on October 2, 2005, in Khorramabad, Lorestan province, in western Iran. She lived with her aunt Atash Shakrami in Tehran.
The 17-year-old young woman was abducted and murdered by the IRGC’s security forces at Tehran’s Keshavarz Blvd on September 20, 2022, during Iran protests. Her friends, who were with her during the protests, say Nika continued to chant slogans ceaselessly and was fearless.
According to available information, her last known communication was a message sent to one of her friends around 7:00 PM. Nika Shakarami said security forces were chasing her, and she was running away.
Nika’s family went looking for her everywhere in prisons, detention centers, police stations, and even the forensic pathologist of Kahrizak Prison.
Her aunt said that unofficial sources contacted her and told her that Nika was kidnapped, held, and questioned by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for a week. She was then transferred and detained for a short time in Evin Prison. However, when her family went to Evin, they were told that Nika Shakarami was not there.
On Friday, September 30, Shakrami’s family was informed by the police station that someone with similar characteristics had been discovered during forensic examinations of dead protesters. They said Nika’s body was at the Kahrizak morgue.
Finally, after ten days of searching for her, Nika Shakrami’s body was handed over to her family. When they received her body, they saw that Nika’s nose was crushed and her skull had been broken and disintegrated from multiple blows from a hard object, perhaps a baton.
While announcing the news of her niece’s death, Atash Shakarami said the authorities had told them that Nika Shakarami had died because of falling from a height. To illustrate this, they were shown a photograph of her lifeless body on a sidewalk. But her brother told her the picture of Nika’s body was suspicious, and it did not seem like she had fallen from a building.
On Saturday morning, October 1, Nika’s family went to Khorramabad’s cemetery for the burial of their daughter, but special IRGC forces attacked them. Intelligence services stole Nika Shakarami’s body and buried her in Veysian Village. The funeral ceremony of Nika Shakrami, with the presence of a large crowd, turned into a protest with people chanting “death to the dictator” and the security officers shooting at them.
The security officers threatened Nika’s family that if they participated in demonstrations and protests, they would also kill Nika’s aunt, Atash Shakarami.
The mullahs’ regime resorted to producing fake videos to cover its role in the torture, rape, and murder of Nika Shakarami. The security forces arrested Nika’s uncle and aunt, Mohsen and Atash Shakarami. They forced them to make false confessions on television. Both had initially announced that Nika had been kidnapped for ten days, and the circumstances of her death were suspicious.
Her mother said Nika’s face and nose were crushed, but her body was in good shape. She publicly stated that the CCTV footage broadcast on state television was unclear and could not prove that the girl entering the building was Nika Shakarami.
Nika’s mother denied the government’s story about her daughter’s suicide and said we just want justice. She continued, “I want the ambiguities of my child’s case to be investigated and those responsible for this tragic incident to accept their responsibility. I want it to be investigated transparently without pressure.”
Nika’s mother exclaimed, “My daughter was courageous, fearless, and opposed to the guidance patrols. She wanted to participate in the protests and express the pains of her generation.”
Nika Shakarami talked to her mother several times during the day of the incident. She told her that she was participating in the protests. Her mother described that in one of the calls, it sounded like Nika and her friends were running from the officers. Mrs. Shakarami said Nika was not a depressed girl who wanted to commit suicide. She just wanted to change the current condition of Iran and society.
